Custom Motorcycles At the 2016 LA Calendar Show

The 2016 LA Calendar Motorcycle Show with sponsorship support by Russ Brown Attorneys continued its now 25-year tradition as one of America's premier annual outdoor street bike events as it rocked the legendary biker party zone at the Sagebrush Cantina for the 2nd year in beautiful downtown Calabasas, California. Celebrity custom bike builders premiered their latest works of rolling art in the Calendar Bike Building Championship, alongside selected product manufacturers and vendors.

Taking Best of Show this year, as in the last four out of five years, was another new-to-America custom bike builder out of Japan. Yuichi Yoshizawa of Custom Works Zon flew his bike in from Japan to take Best of Show at the 2016 LA Calendar Motorcycle Show. This was the 4th out of 5 years that virtually unknown Japanese Builders have claimed the top spot at America's premier custom motorcycle show with their very unique and ornate hand crafted builds. Yuichi's café racer-themed retro Big Twin bike featured engraved hand formed brass bodywork, a unique front single sided and rear single sided swingarm suspension bolted to a one-off aluminum girder frame, and its American V-Twin replica Shovelhead motor fed by a exhaust powered turbocharger.

Yoshizawa returned to the winner's circle in the Street Custom Class with a dragster styled Harley-Davidson Flat Tracker 750cc that he built with Custom Works partner Yoshikazu Ueda. A few months earlier the pair had garnered the win with this bike in the Harley-Davidson of Japan sponsored "Street Build Off" where five of Japan's top custom workshops were given free reign to tear into Harley's new Street 750, with results that were incredible. It was jaw dropping to see that Harley's new water-cooled budget minded street cruiser could also be the base for this incredible custom featuring a single-cradle frame and completely new suspension front and back. The vibe is functional, with an eye on the drag strip: There's a 19-inch W&W wheel up front, and a 15-inch Rocket Racing rear rim. Joining Yoshizawa on his trip to America and in the winner's circle at the Calendar Show was his good friend Hiroko Takai, also of Custom Works, followed by a road trip to Sturgis to show off their Show winning bikes.

The LA show always marks the annual premier of new FastDates Motorcycle PinUp Calendars with the new 2017 Fast Dates World Superbike, Iron & Lace Custom Motorcycles and Garage Girls Pin Up Calendars featuring the world's top race bikes, cafe racers and custom motorcycles with the beautiful Calendar Kittens. This year's Kittens included official SBK World Superbike podium girls Alissa Bourne and Penthouse centerfold Austin Rose who worked the podium at the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca USA World Superbike round just 2 weekends before, and beautiful Russian model Daria Dali.

This year the Calendar Motorcycle Show payed special tribute to legendary custom bike builder Ron Simms out of Oakland, California, as one of the favorite and most successful FastDates Calendar Bike Builders over the last 25 years. Ron has attended nearly every Calendar Show over the years going back to the mid 1990s when the show started at the Santa Monica Airport. His newest custom bikes are always photographed by Calendar publisher Jim Gianatsis for the Iron & Lace Calendar, with the bike shoots also featured in major magazines like Easyriders and American Iron.

An incredible day of live Calendar Girl Music featured American Idol contender Alex Nester and her band performing two exciting sets of rock classics and her own original songs. Alex also serves as vocalist and keyboardist in the bands of legendary guitarist Carlos Santana and his son Salvador Santana. Also performing was 16-year-old singer songwriter Jaq Mackenzie, also featured on American Idol last season.

Like many we know impacted by cancer, singer Alex Nester and Calendar Show producer Jim Gianatsis are cancer survivors, with a portion of ticket sales from the Calendar Show being donated to the American Cancer Society to help others. To find our more about the important work of fighting cancer go to www.cancer.org.

The annual LA Calendar Motorcycle Show is normally held on the 3rd weekend in July at the Sagebrush Cantina, 23527 Calabasas Road, Calabasas, CA 91302. For additional information and more Calendar Bike Show coverage go to: www.fastdates.com.